Repair Lab

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Overview

The Repair Lab is a group of activists, social and physical scientists, and artists focused on environmental justice based at the University of Virginia. The Repair Lab formed in 2020 and is co-directed by Kim Fields and Sally Pusede. Adrian Wood is the Repair Lab Multimedia Producer and Tara Miller the former Policy Research Specialist. Funding for the work of the Repair Lab has come from the University of Virginia Karsh Institute for Democracy, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, University of Virginia Department of Environmental Sciences Goodell Fund, and the Anthropocene Institute.

Practitioner-in-Residence (PIR) Program

The Repair Lab PIR program's primary objective is to position grassroots environmental justice activists at the center of the environmental policy debates affecting their communities.[1] The Repair Lab PIR program provides financial, logistical, research, and media resources to individuals and teams for one-year environmental justice residencies. PIRs direct and work as part of the Repair Lab team to develop a policy intervention, policy implementation plan, and related multimedia products such as a podcast and opinion articles. The team expands as required to include additional community members and/or other subject matter experts, who are all financially compensated for their time and contributions. PIRs are identified through an open application process requiring a short proposal describing the issue that will be the focus of the residency.

The Repair Lab PIR program was designed to support community preferences for action through policy as opposed to the generation of more research. The Repair Lab approach builds on established frameworks for community engagement, in particular, the International Association for Public Participation,[2] but with a focus on collaborating with activists from historically marginalized groups specifically. The Repair Lab PIR program was developed as a response to current trends in environmental justice research that privilege technical and scientific expertise, have top-down organizational structures, and lack genuine engagement with the most-affected people.[3] [4] We define community engagement broadly as activities that build relationships, trust, and capacity to support equitable problem solving and collective action.

In addition to producing new community-centered environmental policies, the Repair Lab PIR program cultivates community leaders and contributes to the political learning, socialization, and activation of PIRs. PIRs build networks with other activists and organizers and become recognized as leaders by local politicians and other decision-makers. These relationships and the expertise developed and held by PIRs remain in the community after the residency has ended, facilitating continuity and deepening affected constituents’ expressions of their preferences and priorities, as is essential for both compelling and evaluating government responsiveness.

Coal Dust Kills

Coal Dust Kills Sign in Southeast Newport News
Coal Dust Kills Yard Sign in Southeast Newport News

Developed by Repair Lab Practitioners in Residence, Lathaniel Kirts and Malcolm Jones, Coal Dust Kills is a campaign focused on driving policy change and community-supported solutions to coal dust mitigation in Southeast Newport News and Lambert's Point. As part of Coal Dust Kills, the Repair Lab and partners, especially Yugonda Sample-Jones of EmPower All, have been involved in a range of activities to advocate for new local and state policies around coal dust mitigation.

The Repair Lab team has interviewed current and former residents of Southeast Newport News and Lambert's Point affected by coal dust pollution, installed a PM2.5 and PM10 community air monitoring network in Southeast Newport News and Lambert's Point known as the VOICES Network, released the report, Coal Dust in Southeast Newport News Is a Nuisance and There Are Solutions, held community meetings, launched Voices in the Dust, and is currently focused on collecting indoor dust samples to characterize its trace metals composition and produce evidence that coal dust is present inside residents' homes.

Repair Lab Multimedia Producer Adrian Wood produced and released Crosswinds, a five-episode podcast connecting listeners to the coal dust problem through fact-based reporting, emotive scenes, and interviews with residents, weaving together audio documentary, journalism, and sound art methods. The podcast begins by rooting listeners in the lifelong friendship of the PIRs. Crosswinds explores the mixed blessings of recent development in both Southeast Newport News and Lambert's Point and how gentrification has the potential to influence the coal dust issue. Listeners are transported along the train tracks built by convict laborers, connecting the mountains of West Virginia to the coal export terminals in Curtis Bay and Hampton Roads, following the coal dust into the air, homes, and lungs of residents. Crosswinds surveys the science of airborne coal dust and the burden of proof placed on communities to demonstrate harm for protection through the regulatory and political process. Finally, Crosswinds features a sermon by Kirts, a pastor in Southeast Newport News, asking what it takes to keep going in the long struggle for environmental justice.

Repair Lab Meeting Minutes and Correspondence, August 2023–May 2024

The Repair Lab meeting minutes serve as a record of discussions, decisions, and actions taken by the Repair in relation to coal dust and environmental justice efforts over August 2023–May 2024. These dates do not span the full period of activity of the Repair Lab. They document past and ongoing research, community engagement, policy advocacy, and collaborative efforts among residents, activists, students, and institutional actors.

The purpose of the Repair Lab meeting minutes is to preserve the labor and contributions of grassroots environmental justice and provide a space for reflection, analysis, and future strategy development. Specifically, the minutes serve to:

Document Grassroots Efforts: By capturing detailed accounts of the Repair Lab's work, the minutes help ensure that the history of community-led efforts to address coal dust is preserved for future generations. This includes documenting the tireless work of community members, local activists, and student researchers in the ongoing struggle for environmental justice.
Facilitate Institutional Memory: The minutes function as an archive of institutional knowledge, providing a reference point for both new and returning members of the Repair Lab. They help facilitate continuity in the Repair Lab's efforts by maintaining a record of past actions and the lessons learned, which can be revisited when tackling new challenges.
Support Future Research and Activism: The minutes offer valuable insights for future initiatives focused on coal dust and other environmental justice concerns in Southeast Newport News and Lambert's Point. By revisiting past discussions and strategies, future projects can be informed by prior knowledge, reducing redundancy and enhancing the efficacy of ongoing advocacy work.
Foster Collaboration and Networking: As a record of collaborative efforts between community members, students, activists, and institutional partners, the minutes help build networks of support for environmental justice initiatives. They provide a tangible record of how collaboration has led to progress in addressing coal dust pollution, highlighting successful strategies and areas for improvement.

For residents, the minutes serve to validate concerns, provide guidance on taking action, and serve as evidence for policy reform. The public can use the minutes to raise awareness, understand the risks of coal dust, and engage in local advocacy efforts. Environmental justice advocates can strengthen their campaigns by drawing from the Repair Lab's documented strategies and policy recommendations, while activists can track progress, identify gaps in efforts, and coordinate further actions.

The Repair Lab meeting minutes are a historical record and a strategic tool for anyone seeking to understand and address the environmental and health impacts of coal dust, supporting continued advocacy, research, and policy reform.

Documents

Repair Lab Meeting Minutes

References

  1. ↑ Fields et al., Practicing Repair: Advancing Community-Based Solutions on Coal Dust Pollution in Hampton Roads, Virginia through a Practitioner-in-Residence Program, Environmental Justice, 2024.
  2. ↑ International Association for Public Participation, IAP2 Spectrum of Public Participation, 2018.
  3. ↑ Wilson et al., A Critical Review of an Authentic and Transformative Environmental Justice and Health Community—University Partnership, International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 11, 12, 12817–12834, 2014.
  4. ↑ Ottinger, Buckets of Resistance: Standards and the Effectiveness of Citizen Science, Science, Technology, & Human Values, 35, 2, 244–270, 2010.
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